Broken Lands

Sophia led the way to a cooler part of the hot bath, where they could sit in comfort for as long as they needed to without overheating. It was closer to the cool end than she usually picked; she expected both of them to be distracted dealing with possible new Abilities, so they might be in the water longer than usual.

Dav climbed into the pool across from Sophia when she stopped and sat with a groan. “Oh, this is so nice. Maybe I should set up the healing beacon here.”

Sophia shook her head. “If we were alone, sure, but what is it going to look like this time? Do you want someone surprised while you’re looking at new Abilities?”

“Ah, fair enough. We should probably get started.” Dav didn’t seem to be in a hurry.; his gaze stayed focused on Sophia instead of looking at screens in front of himself.

Sophia felt oddly reluctant to look, too. She wasn’t sure why, but the moment seemed too perfect to disturb.

The silence grew longer until Sophia finally decided that she really shouldn’t wait any longer and pulled up her Status. “Yeah, we really should look. Huh. I have 31 Wisps available. You?”

“The same. That means we each got thirty from the fragment; do you think that’s because there were three of us or because fragments are weaker than shards?” A grin started to form on Dav’s face as he speculated on how things worked.

“It could be because it was easier, or it could be because we have a level now. Do you think anyone here knows?” Sophia really meant Aymini and Vramt, since they were the best guides they had.

“Probably.” Dav sounded a little disappointed at that. He looked around and seemed to confirm no one was within easy earshot before he added in a quiet voice, “I noticed that no one tried to talk to us after we cleared the fragment.”

He had to mean the Wanderer. Sophia nodded and whispered back, “Yeah, Revina was there.”

Sophia glanced across her Status. There wasn’t anything she could do about her Spells and Martial Techniques, since Cliff didn’t have anything new. She wasn’t ready to increase her Level yet, not if it would make things more expensive. That meant she couldn’t do anything about her Shield.

Body: 5

Wisp Dedication - Sophia

Unaffiliated Abilities:

50 Wisps

Available Wisps: 31

Innate Communication (Bonus, Free)

(Feather Image)

Dedication Requires Available Slot

Core: 7

Ability Slots:

50 Wisps

Unaffiliated: 20 Wisps

Species Abilities:

Species: 10 Wisps

(None)

Spheres

Spellblade: 25 Wisps

Dedication Requires Available Slot

Spellblade (Hallow)

Martial Techniques: 25 Wisps

Level:1

Spellblade Abilities:

10 Wisps

Unslot Ability: Varies

(Imbue Blade, 1, 1)

Dedication Requires Available Slot

Collector (Linked)

Level: 1

No Dedication Possible

“Hell’s bells,” Dav swore. “I can’t even look at possible abilities without an open slot?”

Sophia turned her attention to that part of her Wisp Dedication screen. “I can’t either. Dedication Requires Available Slot is what it says. Hm. I think it may be worth buying a slot. I wonder, should I go for a Species slot or a Spellblade slot?”

Dragons were powerful. If she were certain the Guide knew what a dragon was, she’d go for a species slot without thinking too hard about it. She didn’t know what was there.

On the other hand, she knew some of what was in the spellblade section and she thought some of it was likely to be very useful in the coming days. It was a sure bet, if she had the wisps for it. The thing was, she didn’t. Not at 25 for a spellblade slot. A spellblade ability was certain to cost at least ten and she only had 31. She could probably get a species ability as well as the slot with that.

“Could go unaffiliated, too,” Dav muttered. “Those could be anything.”

“Could work,” Sophia agreed. “At least you might have the points to buy an ability as well as the slot.”

“Yeah. I’m going to look through species abilities since that one hasn’t filled in yet, then probably buy an unaffiliated slot and see what’s there. I kind of want to save points for attributes, but I don’t think that’s the right play yet. I think we’re going to want to spread things around, which means one slot in each. Yeah, that sounds good.” Dav was clearly more muttering to himself than talking to Sophia by the end.

He was probably right. It seemed possible but very expensive to focus on one thing to the exclusion of everything else. It looked like wisps were going to come fairly easily but unless the rewards went up, they’d disappear even faster.

Sophia started to pick up a Species Ability Slot, then paused. Theoretically, she could afford either a Species Ability Slot and Ability or an Unaffiliated Ability Slot and Ability, but she couldn’t look at them both. Dav was planning to look at Unaffiliated Abilities, however, and it seemed plausible they’d be shared. If she waited, she could get an idea of what was there without spending her points on it yet. “Dav, what are you seeing in Unaffiliated Abilities? Is there one I really should pick up without looking at anything else?”

“Hmm.” Dav muttered to himself as he looked through his options. “Regeneration … no, that looks like a worse version of the Healing Beacon that only applies to yourself, it specifically says it doesn’t work on major injuries and is very slow. Now, if it worked on Shield, that might be something, but it doesn’t. Oh, wait, there’s one that does … recovers ten percent faster. Yeah, no. I bet there’s a chain of those; might be useful if you take enough of them but that’ll be really expensive. Effect reduction, that’s interesting. Oh, hah, it says I’m not high enough Level for anything here. Minimum level is four? That’s good to know.”

Dav chuckled at the next one. “Harder to hurt? One extra point of Shield probably does that, but it doesn’t seem that significant. Equipment abilities … and of course it’s blank because I haven’t used any valid equipment. We should ask about that. Oh, hey, now there’s something useful. Individual Telepathic Link … but it’s a hundred wisps and both people have to take it with each other designated as the target of the link. I’m surprised it doesn’t have a level limit.”

Sophia was too. On the other hand, a hundred wisps and an ability slot seemed like a sort of limit; you would have to really want it to go for something like that.

“There are some more with trained animals or linked companions, but most of them are underwhelming or far too expensive. Oh, there’s one. Danger sense sounds useful, I may take that one.” Dav paused, then read the description of the Ability. This time, he was obviously reading it to Sophia. “Sense the world around you with your aura to gain a small chance to notice possible dangers before they occur. Hm. The combination of small and possible isn’t filling me with confidence.”

Sophia blinked. She already knew how to do that. It wasn’t hard; it was basic aura manipulation. Well, it wasn’t hard for anyone who’d been using their aura since they were a child; it might be hard for people who didn’t have that experience. “If you don’t take that one, I can probably teach it to you. Something a lot like it, at least; the Ability probably takes less attention. Normal aura sensing requires you to pay attention unless it’s really strong. It’s just another sense, like hearing; if it’s loud, you’ll definitely hear it, but it can be lost in other noises or you can just not be listening.”

“That sounds like a bit more than it’s promising with the ability,” Dav noted. “I’ll take you up on that whether or not I pick danger sense. I don’t think I will, at least not for now. Let’s see … huh. Specialize mana core? It says it makes spells and abilities using the element cheaper and more powerful but may make managing other elements more difficult.”

“That might be worth picking up once you know which way you’re headed. I’m pretty sure Revina’s trying to get an Air specialization and Vramt has one in rocks or stone. Earth, perhaps, if they’re not that distinct.” Sophia shook her head. If only she knew more. She thought she knew what it was talking about, but gaining one element didn’t directly make others harder usually. At least, it didn’t with the Voice’s help; maybe the Guide did? “I also have a specialty, but mine’s in magic itself. It means all my spells are a little easier to shape properly, a little more efficient, a little faster. It doesn’t make them any more powerful directly unless they’re interacting with magic. It helps more with spellbreaking than with spellcasting, really.”

It also helped with runic inscription and enchanting, but Sophia only knew the very basics of both and she didn’t know if those would carry over into this world or not. Her guess was that some of the basics would but that she’d have a lot to learn. Realistically, she’d have had a lot to learn back home, as well; while she could patch up a damaged enchantment temporarily, that was about the best she could manage. Making one from nothing wasn’t something she’d ever done on her own. Even with help, she’d only done it a couple times. She had none of the tools she’d need and she wasn’t skilled or knowledgeable enough to make the tools. They’d probably be available when they got to a bigger city, but Sophia wasn’t interested in settling down to make things.

“There’s only one specialization available for me,” Dav reported. “Eldritch. Attune yourself to the primordial chaos that lies beneath reality. That’s a bit grim, if this is all real.”

Sophia gave Dav a hard look. Did he still have doubts that he was in reality? “It is real. You should know that by now.”

Dav sighed. “I just don’t want to know. You know?”

Despite the fractured way he said it, Dav’s meaning was clear. “You don’t want to believe it because it’s not what you thought reality was. Yeah, I get it.” She probably didn’t, at least not the way he did, but she could try. It definitely didn’t help that she’d expected to have her world change at some point, but that was less important than the fact that he’d been lied to and sent to another world when he thought he was just testing something in virtual reality. “But unless your virtual reality is a lot more advanced than ours, it can’t do anything like this.”

Dav shook his head. “No, this is too real. I mean, the scenery and monsters could be generated; the fighting’s a bit too smooth but that could be new tech. The fact that I can feel something when I call the beacon could be my imagination. The people, though? We can’t do anything like the people. That takes people.”

AIs might be capable, but Sophia wasn’t certain. She knew several, and none of them really felt human when you dealt with them, not the way people like Dav, Aymini, Revina, and Vramt did. They were people but they weren’t natively embodied in flesh and that changed things. “We can’t either. Even if they were people, I can’t believe that anyone could act that well and that consistently without believing in it. So … yeah. This is real.”

Dav stretched. Sophia had noticed he did that when he talked about whether or not this was real, as if he were either testing his body or maybe trying to become more comfortable with it. In water like this, it momentarily outlined his muscles through the cloth of the soaking robe. Sophia couldn’t take her eyes off them until he rolled his shoulders and settled back into place. “So, back to what we were doing. What do you think about mana core specialization? You said you have one?”